An amended plan for new student housing at the University of California, Berkeley has been announced amidst protests surrounding the development that have touched on issues related to the state’s ongoing housing crisis.

Local outlets are now reporting that the planned dormitory in People’s Park will be reduced to 12 stories and moved to direct more sunlight onto the city’s landmark First Church of Christ, Scientist, which was designed by prominent Arts and Crafts Movement architect Bernard Maybeck in 1910.  

University Chancellor Carol Christ said the revised double-winged scheme will still be able to accommodate approximately 1,100 residents (down from the original 1,200) and that the school will wait until it can comply with demands of protesters before it breaks ground on the new housing complex.

Students gathered last week at the park’s iconic Sather Gate to protest the university’s “land grab” that will reportedly displace members of the houseless population currently residing in it. One UC Berkeley sophomore even suggested that the university should relocate the planned housing to the nearby Chancellor’s mansion. Students began their occupation in February after the university closed off the park to commence soil testing for the then-planned 16-story housing development. 

The park, which traces its beginnings to a student-led protest against the use of eminent domain to clear it of existing houses, has been at the center of university life since its hard-fought creation in 1969. The updated plan will still include about 1.7 acres of green space in addition to a monument to the park’s history and another undetermined plot of land that will provide supportive housing through an area non-profit called RSD. 

"The design of the student housing and open space supports a vision for the site to become a place that honors the history of the park and the diversity of the community while furthering the university’s commitment to equity and environmental stewardship," LMS Architects said in a statement posted to a university website.

The plan was announced in 2018 as part of a push to add 7,500 beds to the school’s housing stock by the end of the decade. The Berkeley campus currently has the lowest percentage of students housed in the entire UC system and was forced to freeze its enrollment by an Alameda County judge in an effort to assuage the environmental impacts caused by overpopulation.

The university is currently facing four separate lawsuits against the proposed development. Berkeleyside has more on the updated plans here.